You won’t be able to use WhatsApp on these devices in 2019

With over 1.5 billion users and 60 billion messages sent every day, WhatsApp is the biggest instant messaging for the year 2018. However, by 2019, some individuals might not be able to send or receive messages on the app as the company will be pulling support for their devices in the upcoming year. Ever since the company’s acquisition by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp has grown tremendously with new features and updates rolling to the app every now and then.

Due to the increasing number of users on the platform, rolling out features and updates to old/outdated devices would be resource-intensive and counterproductive on the part of the company. This is why the company has been actively dropping support for older devices and operating system over the years. In 2017, for example, the company announced it would be ending support for BlackBerry 7 and BlackBerry 10 devices.

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The termination of support for certain devices and operating systems actually makes sense as majority of people don’t use them anymore or have jump shipped to better devices and OS. Business-wise, it is a brilliant move; withdrawing support for say 1-2% of users and focusing more on 98 – 99%. The last time WhatsApp dropped supports for older operating systems (in June 2018), the following versions were affected:

Android versions older than 2.3.3

Windows Phone 8.0 and older

iPhone 3GS/iOS 6

Nokia Symbian S60

BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10

What devices won’t be able to ‘WhatsApp’ in 2019 (and beyond)

Before now, WhatsApp had outlined devices and OS that would be cut-off from its support room and affixed dates to them accordingly. See below:

Nokia S40 until December 31, 2018

Android versions 2.3.7 and older until February 1, 2020

iOS 7 and older until February 1, 2020

Going by the calendar, only Nokia Series 40 (S40) devices will be going the list of devices that are no longer compatible with the instant messaging platform. What this means is that if you use a Nokia Series 40 device, you will no longer be able to create new WhatsApp accounts and some features of the app could stop functioning on the device at any time. You will, however, still be able to use WhatsApp on the device though.

WhatsApp notification on Nokia Asha 210 – a Nokia S40 device

The same fate awaits the smartphones running Android v2.3.7 and older and iOS 7 and older when WhatsApp pulls the plug on them by February 2020.

A list of Nokia Series 40 devices

Listed below are some Nokia phones running on the company’s Series 40 (S40) OS:

If you own any of the above-listed phones, don’t be stunned when you can’t create a new WhatsApp account or you notice some hiccups and irregularities while using your WhatsApp application. You would have to get a new phone to enjoy the full features of the platform as well as guaranteed future updates and support. And while at it, WhatsApp recommends purchasing devices that run the following operating systems: